90 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



The expedition started from Seattle May 21, 1937, on the cutter 

 Northland; transshipped at Juneau to the Talapoosa; changed at 

 Unalaska to the Morris, from which it explored Unalaska and the 

 Four-Mountain group ; shipped again on the Talapoosa, on which it 

 reached Attu and the Commander Islands and from which it eventu- 

 ally (July 17) was placed on the uninhabited and little-known island 

 of Agatu, in the westernmost American group, where 22 days were 

 spent in excavation. On August 8 the party was taken from Agatu 

 by the cutter Ditaiie, visited with this vessel the islands of Attu, 

 Tanaga, Ilak, Adak, Umnak, and Shiprock, and returned August 20 

 to Unalaska. There we were met by the Navy transport Sirius, to 

 which we transferred the collections, and on the morning of August 21 

 left for Seattle. 



Scientifically, the work on Agatu Island and that during the last 

 12 days of the journey proved the most remunerative, being topped on 

 August 19, the last day of the trip, by the discovery of a hitherto un- 

 known cave, or rock shelter, on Shiprock Island in the Umnak Pass. 

 The anthropological materials collected during the 3 months filled 51 

 boxes and barrels ; but even more important were the determinations 

 made possible by the recovered skeletal remains. 



The results indicate the existence throughout the Aleutian Islands 

 of a separate type of people antedating the Aleut. These were an 

 oblong- and medium high-headed type, occasionally somewhat eski- 

 moid, but more commonly Indian-like. Their latest strains admixed 

 more or less with the broad- and low -headed Aleut. 



The occupation of the islands by the earlier element, as shown by 

 the deposits, was considerably longer than that by the Aleut, and the 

 people at one time must have been rather numerous. Both types ex- 

 tend throughout the chain, but the Aleut overlay thins out as one pro- 

 ceeds from the Peninsula westward. Some of the blood of the older 

 oblong-headed element evidently still exists in a few of the mixblood 

 survivors on the islands. It is the same type as that found in the lower 

 deposit or stratum on Kodiak Island. All the old sites on the Aleutian 

 islands probably belong to this type, but generally contain a cover, 

 an adjunct, or intrusive burials of the characteristic later broad- 

 heads, or Aleut. 



Since [926, the beginning of these explorations in Alaska, it has 

 been clear that there were two physically distinct varieties of the 

 Eskimo, and it now is seen that at one time there were also two 

 varieties of men in the Aleutian Islands. Moreover, neither of the 

 types in the Aleutians were identical with either of the true Eskimo 



